1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to medical diagnosis and more specifically relates to providing a network of pathologists that render second opinions on medical diagnoses.
2. Related Art
In the current state of medical diagnoses, pathologists may feel uncomfortable rendering a final diagnosis on a difficult case and/or a case outside his or her area of expertise. Such a pathologist may want a second opinion and not be able to get one from within the pathologist's practice group or medical organization. Alternatively, a patient may simply ask for a second opinion.
In these situations, a pathologist typically sends one or more of the patient's glass slides (with a specimen on it) to a consulting pathologist, typically someone with whom the pathologists or the pathologist's lab has a standing relationship, to receive the second opinion. The turnaround time for a second opinion can be extremely slow, weeks even months for the result (e.g., the more famous/expert the consulting pathologist, the longer the wait), particularly in cases where the consulting pathologist lives in another country and slides are held up in customs. Eventually, the provider of the second opinion sends back a report (or perhaps delivers the report orally via telephone) and hopefully also sends back the glass slide. A common problem today is that original slides never get returned.
The consulting pathologist who renders the second opinion may bill the referring pathologist for the consultation or may submit billing to an insurance carrier directly. The carrier may reimburse if they consider the second opinion medically necessary. Carriers also may choose not to reimburse the pathologist who renders the second opinion, which discourages willingness to provide second opinions.
Additionally, a patient may want a second opinion but not feel comfortable requesting one, or a patient may request a second opinion and be denied. For example, the patient's primary care physician may conclude that a second opinion is not necessary or the insurance carrier may deny the requested second opinion. In any case, when a patient is denied a requested second opinion the patient has few options.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that overcomes these significant problems found in the conventional systems as described above.